Banasophia’s Biocube 32 - Return of the DragonReef 🐉

[billygoat]

30 minutes ago, monkeytrumpets said:

I love the clean look of the Biocubes, but after a LOT of mulling, ended up going with the 40 gallon IM Nuvo Fusion.  It's currently mid-cycle, so I'm living vicariously through beautiful tanks like yours while I wait to be able to start stocking mine. 😋  The plan is for primarily LPS/Softies.  Still debating on fish.  I definitely want a clown pair, and then possibly a clown goby, and a Banggai cardinal.  Since I want to go captive bred if possible, that limits my choices a bit.

Great choice on the Nuvo Fusion 40! That's basically the tank of my dreams. So tall and deep! So much space for huge, beautiful gorgonians! 😁

 

Gorgonians, incidentally, are also easy-to-keep soft corals that can be sustainably propagated. Any plans to keep a few in that gorgeous new tank of yours? 

 

Edit: Also, sorry to hijack your thread @banasophia! I am not gonna lie, I thought this was the chat thread. 😂

[monkeytrumpets]

35 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Great choice on the Nuvo Fusion 40! That's basically the tank of my dreams. So tall and deep! So much space for huge, beautiful gorgonians! 😁

 

Thanks!  I'm very excited.  I find myself sitting in the livingroom staring at it from time to time, despite the only living things currently being microorganisms. 😄

 

Quote

Gorgonians, incidentally, are also easy-to-keep soft corals that can be sustainably propagated. Any plans to keep a few in that gorgeous new tank of yours? 

So far I plan on something from Euphyllia, and I need to stake out a spot for some Florida Ricordea.  I will definitely need to add gorgonians to my list though, especially after looking at your Caribbean biotope (congrats on TOTM, btw!!!)  I may or may not be reading through your guide to photosynthetic gorgonians as I type this... 😉

 

Edit: Add me to the apology train, @banasophia for the thread hijack.  You can't take me anywhere nice... 😂

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Great choice on the Nuvo Fusion 40! That's basically the tank of my dreams. So tall and deep! So much space for huge, beautiful gorgonians! 😁

 

Gorgonians, incidentally, are also easy-to-keep soft corals that can be sustainably propagated. Any plans to keep a few in that gorgeous new tank of yours? 

 

Edit: Also, sorry to hijack your thread @banasophia! I am not gonna lie, I thought this was the chat thread. 😂

 

1 hour ago, monkeytrumpets said:

Thanks!  I'm very excited.  I find myself sitting in the livingroom staring at it from time to time, despite the only living things currently being microorganisms. 😄

 

So far I plan on something from Euphyllia, and I need to stake out a spot for some Florida Ricordea.  I will definitely need to add gorgonians to my list though, especially after looking at your Caribbean biotope (congrats on TOTM, btw!!!)  I may or may not be reading through your guide to photosynthetic gorgonians as I type this... 😉

 

Edit: Add me to the apology train, @banasophia for the thread hijack.  You can't take me anywhere nice... 😂

 

Haha no worries... you guys can chat in any of my threads... I’d be chatting it up with you but I’m pretty busy with work... carry on 💛

 

 

[banasophia]

You guys think it’s dinos? Showed up fast over the past 2-3 days, much worse today than yesterday...
 

 

[debbeach13]

I am not sure. I thought Dino were sort of stringy and some times air bubbles attached. Of course there are many different kinds.

[banasophia]

28 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I am not sure. I thought Dino were sort of stringy and some times air bubbles attached. Of course there are many different kinds.

Yeah that’s what I was thinking too... doesn’t seem as stringy and bubbly... so maybe it’s not 🤞🤞🤞

[debbeach13]

Is it dusty? Can you blow it off with a baster? Maybe it is a diatom bloom. I get one from time to time. Did you change the flow or lighting? Add any thing new?

[Ratvan]

12 hours ago, banasophia said:

You guys think it’s dinos? Showed up fast over the past 2-3 days, much worse today than yesterday...
 

Diatoms and Cyano imo

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Is it dusty? Can you blow it off with a baster? Maybe it is a diatom bloom. I get one from time to time. Did you change the flow or lighting? Add any thing new?

 

6 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Diatoms and Cyano imo

yes, I just reduced the flow and the temp was running high Friday night around 82 due to the house heating up... hopefully just diatoms/cyano 🤞 i upped the flow again, and I’ll hook up the chiller today. thanks for the input, friends!

[banasophia]

Oh man, got worse yesterday and looking more like dino 😩😩😩 
 

 

 

[Cannedfish]

That last pic... kinda looked like dinos. Which I hope to god they aren't. Dino are the devil. How are you nutrient levels, in my tank (which we all know is a &*$@show), the dinos reared their ugly head when nutrients bottomed out. I've been able to control my through a combination of bacterial dosing, H202 dosing at night, a UV filter, and raising the nutrients. Good luck and godspeed.

 

Also huge congratulations on TOTM. I know that was forever ago, but I kinda disappeared for a year. Your tank looks amazingballs!

[banasophia]

34 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

That last pic... kinda looked like dinos. Which I hope to god they aren't. Dino are the devil. How are you nutrient levels, in my tank (which we all know is a &*$@show), the dinos reared their ugly head when nutrients bottomed out. I've been able to control my through a combination of bacterial dosing, H202 dosing at night, a UV filter, and raising the nutrients. Good luck and godspeed.

 

Also huge congratulations on TOTM. I know that was forever ago, but I kinda disappeared for a year. Your tank looks amazingballs!

Hey, @Cannedfish, great to see you! Yeah, I thought perhaps it might be the nutrients and fed my happy fish a bunch of frozen last night while I tested... but my results seemed to indicate my nitrate was 10-15, phosphate was 0.25. At least the fish were happy they got to pig out haha.

 

I’ll retest tonight using my Red Sea kit, since I only used my API last night. Anyway, tried to hook up my repaired chiller last night but the chiller isn’t working... just ordered a replacement to arrive in a couple days. Added some BioSpira and some Microbacter 7. Ordered a UV sterilizer to try if need be. 🤞🤞🤞

[banasophia]

47 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

That last pic... kinda looked like dinos. Which I hope to god they aren't. Dino are the devil. How are you nutrient levels, in my tank (which we all know is a &*$@show), the dinos reared their ugly head when nutrients bottomed out. I've been able to control my through a combination of bacterial dosing, H202 dosing at night, a UV filter, and raising the nutrients. Good luck and godspeed.

 

Also huge congratulations on TOTM. I know that was forever ago, but I kinda disappeared for a year. Your tank looks amazingballs!

Oh yeah and thanks about the TOTM! Can’t believe it’s been a year since then!! Glad you’re back around. 

[monkeytrumpets]

On 4/14/2020 at 10:08 AM, banasophia said:

Oh man, got worse yesterday and looking more like dino 😩😩😩 
 

 

 

Oh god, kill it with fire!!!  (Sorry this is happening!  You'll get 'em sorted out. 😊)

[banasophia]

Okay so the dino seems to be settling down... to be replaced with... algae!! Check out how fast it grew! 

C’mon snail, do your thing!
 

Kinda looks like the hubs hair before I took the clippers to it last weekend haha... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

I 💛you, #5!

 

 

[banasophia]

the cloves are looking so pretty... soon I’ll move the original frag plug to the Evo... it needs some clove love too!

 

 

[teenyreef]

Wow, #5 is Mr. Incredible!

[A.m.P]

Such a chunky damsel, I love it.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Such a chunky damsel, I love it.

Yeah, he’s a beautiful fish... I love his fin mohawk.

 

The fish I really want to rehome is the banggai cardinal... he got huge really fast and just seems too big for the tank. Once I’m getting out of the house again I’ll probably return him to the LFS. Not looking forward to catching him though. 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Well, I had tried out my repaired chiller in this tank a month or two ago and unfortunately the repair didn’t take... so I swooped up a new chiller and was going to add it, but then a couple guys in the Facebook Biocube group said that the temp would go down naturally if I just lowered the water level in chamber 3.
 

So I put the chiller install on hold and tried the lower water level for a couple weeks to no avail... the temp continued to run in the 80-83 range.  I just hooked up the new chiller and I feel the peace of mind already. 😅 Hoping to get this tank as stable as possible because of course you can’t mess around with an SPS dominant tank. 
 

I also got a jeabao doser like the one jackal227 used in his 16, had hoped to set it up today, but ran out of time so I’ll have to hold off on that for today. 

[banasophia]

Woke up to the tank running a nice 77.5F. 😅 Phase 1 of DragonReef stabilization successful!!
 

Next project - hook up the doser and get that going.

 

And the big question: do I fork out the money for a Trident? I had asked my LFS to put me on their wait list about a week ago, assuming it would take a couple months for them to get it, but they already got one in stock for me!! I’d have to buy both the Trident and an Apex, so very very pricey... not sure if I can rationalize that kind of expenditure right now. 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

And the big question: do I fork out the money for a Trident? I had asked my LFS to put me on their wait list about a week ago, assuming it would take a couple months for them to get it, but they already got one in stock for me!! I’d have to buy both the Trident and an Apex, so very very pricey... not sure if I can rationalize that kind of expenditure right now. 

right now?  absolutely not worth an investment given your tank's state.  you don't even have enough SPS to justify mid-week dosing, imo.  until you see major alk consumption on a daily basis, i don't see it being beneficial.  even then,  programmable wi-fi dosing pumps have come a long way that you can space out the dosing throughout the day to "smooth out the swing" vs say dumping 10 ml of supplement in once a day.  Fore example, mine is even dumber than that, my BRS dosing pump is plugged into a digital timer, that activates it 6 times a day for 1 minute each vs waiting to run 6 minutes all at once at 10pm.    

 

So unless you're "I must know now" type of person and just can't live without knowing what your alk number is 4 hours ago, then go for it.  otherwise, wait, money better spent elsewhere

 

  

 

[banasophia]

18 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

right now?  absolutely not worth an investment given your tank's state.  you don't even have enough SPS to justify mid-week dosing, imo.  until you see major alk consumption on a daily basis, i don't see it being beneficial.  even then,  programmable wi-fi dosing pumps have come a long way that you can space out the dosing throughout the day to "smooth out the swing" vs say dumping 10 ml of supplement in once a day.  Fore example, mine is even dumber than that, my BRS dosing pump is plugged into a digital timer, that activates it 6 times a day for 1 minute each vs waiting to run 6 minutes all at once at 10pm.    

 

So unless you're "I must know now" type of person and just can't live without knowing what your alk number is 4 hours ago, then go for it.  otherwise, wait, money better spent elsewhere

 

  

 

Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too, yet is it kinda like remodeling your house, where if you know you’ll need to do it when selling it, may as well go ahead and do it sooner to enjoy it? 

 

I dunno... it’s requiring 3-9 ml of alk every time I dose it, but that’s because I’m adding it every 1-3 days... and it seems I have fried a couple corals up top when adding too fast... just setting up the jebao doser will help with that though, so maybe I’ll just do the doser and see how that works out with weekly testing. I just can’t deal with daily testing though. 

[Coolbreeze]

On 12/1/2019 at 4:43 AM, banasophia said:

Next, the Gyre.
 

I was originally going to use a new jebao ow-10 and my mp10, but then I saw this cool video about the gyre by BRS;

 

 

So I ordered an IceCap 1K Gyre from Amazon and I love it so far. There are 5 flow patterns with adjustable speeds. I’ve been running it in Constant mode at 100%, but other modes look promising as well and it’s easy to adjust. I’m also excited it can be placed at the top of the tank so I don’t have to reach all the way in to remove it for cleaning. 

 

I took a video of it tonight, with air stones creating bubbles so you can see the flow patterns. Not sure why it’s coming through so blurry on YouTube, sorry... it’s super boring and there’s no audio, but I thought some people might want to check it out, especially since there are some mixed reviews about using them in a Biocube.

 

 

These things are awesome. I had three of them on my DSA 105. Best pump ever.